Hilary de Joux – Head of French

Emanuel School is one of the first schools in NSW to adopt new education software called ImmerseMe which utilises technologies such as virtual reality and speech recognition to immerse students into authentic foreign language situations. On Tuesday this week co-founder and CEO of New Zealand company ImmerseMe, Scott Cardwell, was invited to visit the French department at Emanuel school to demonstrate and trial this software with Years 10 and 12 students.  Students found that it was just like being in a real-life situation in Paris and thoroughly enjoyed it. The content is differentiated into Beginner, Intermediate and Advanced – from beginner scenarios at Year 9 and 10 such as buying a croissant from a bakery or ordering a crepe from the creperie, to discussing hobbies, sports or weekend plans with à friend, or perhaps a visit to the Doctor, to senior discussion themes such as learning how to develop an argument and debate social issues at Years 11 and 12 –  including environmental problems facing France, what your plans are after leaving school, future aspirations, animal cruelty and ethics.

The ImmerseMe system is amazing in that it actually understands the students speaking in French and provides them with instant feedback, showing them which words they are saying correctly and which are not yet quite right and needing further practise, allowing students to develop confidence in their ability to actually put their French speaking skills to use in authentic scenarios. The recordings are all native speakers and as students work through tasks and situations, they engage in interactions with different levels of support available to them, starting with from the script provided for early learners, through to prompts of key words they could incorporate into their own created spoken response as they gain more confidence and autonomy.

As the videos are all filmed in real life situations and locations in France, students are also able to develop their intercultural understanding and competencies as they discover French shops, street scenes, restaurants and cafés, geography and a vast array of other locations in French speaking communities as part of the 360 degree video experience. A lot of learning occurs naturally in this environment.

We are very excited for Emanuel School to be one of the very first schools in NSW to pilot this innovative software and we are fortunate to be in the early adopter program, allowing us to trial the software and provide feedback to help develop it further. We cannot wait for the full virtual reality version of the program to come out later this year where students will truly feel immersed in their French learning and put their new skills into practise.  Cest parti!